Minorities body files report on Delhi riots

› The violence was not spontaneous. Armed mobs selectively targeted Muslim individuals and properties while shouting slogans.

Delhi Minorities Commission report

NEWDELHI: Repeated incitement to violence, planned and organised rioting by armed mobs, targeting of religious places, and multiple incidents of police inaction – these are some of the findings of a committee appointed by the Delhi Minorities Commission to probe the northeast Delhi riots in February. At least 53 persons died and 400 were injured in the riots that rocked the district.

The committee, headed by Supreme Court advocate-on-record MR Shamshad, submitted its 130-page report to lieutenant governor Anil Baijal, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia , other Delhi government ministers and speaker of the Delhi legislative assembly on Wednesday. The report is based on individual victim testimonies and surveys of damage to religious sites.

The committee said that in the Delhi election campaign between December 2019 and February 2020,multiple speeches delivered by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders such as Kapil Mishra tried to incite the people against anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act protesters and called for forceful removal of protesters from the Jafrabad area.

Mishra, who delivered one of his speeches on February 23, denied allegations. He told HT earlier that even legal experts said there was nothing wrong in what he said that day. The report said the violence was not spontaneous. It said armed mobs selectively targeted Muslim individuals and properties while shouting slogans. “The attacks were targeted to the extent that in instances where the owners were Hindus but rented properties to Muslims, the buildings were spared but the moveable properties were looted or burned,” the report said.